A Border Soldier at the End of the Ming

The forty-seventh year of the Wanli reign, late Ming dynasty, the first day of the third lunar month. Sarhu in Liaodong, the Suzi River valley. Wind and snow swept blood across the land as mountains and rivers wailed. He remembered clearly the bloody history of the decades to come: The second day of the third month: Ma Lin's Northern Route forces were routed. The fourth day of the third month: Liu Ting died in battle on the Eastern Route. The fifth day of the third month: Li Rubai retreated in disarray, and the Battle of Sarhu ended in total defeat. From then on, Later Jin faced no opposition. It gradually devoured Liaodong, capturing Kaiyuan, Tieling, Shenyang, and Liaoyang one after another. A million people in Liaodong were slaughtered or taken captive as slaves, and the seeds of the Qing catastrophe took root. He had spent three years in military camps in his previous life, honing his wilderness survival skills, small-unit tactics, and assassination and hand-to-hand combat techniques. He had thought that after leaving the army, life would settle into the ordinary, and all he could do was lament the tragedy of the late Ming in books. Who would have thought that one deep sleep would plunge him straight into this bloody battle to save a dying nation?